The Value of a House

The Value of a House

-or-
Bailing Out a Leaky Boat

What is the value of a house?

I am not talking about the advertiser's cozy "home" that so many people are being evicted from because they can't pay their incredible mortgage.

Poor people.

Or ARE they?

Most of these home owners bought their home for a hugely inflated price with the intention of SELLING it to some other fool for a HIGHER price in just a few months!

These things NEVER were "homes"--they were just temporary expensive doodads to live in until their "owners" could unload them for a BIG PROFIT!

Reread the GET RICK QUICK books being cranked out by HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE IN REAL ESTATE maestros of the real estate bubble era if you can without throwing up.

Abject lessons in GREED they are.

A house is a HOUSE! Not a "home"!

A house is a shelter--hopefully well enough built to keep you dry in a rainstorm and warm when the snow piles up around you.

The McMansions these weeping "homeowners" are being evicted from by the thousand were never meant to be lived in--they were built to be sold for a profit as often and as quickly as possible.

Do we HAVE to feel sorry for these greed-driven nincompoops?

They are only experiencing their karma--as they must in this life. And as all of us will anyway!

Bail 'em out?

Some foolishness cannot be "bailed out" and SOME leaky boats WILL sink.

Tomasito, 2008



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Medical Greed Operation

Tomasito (Tanya photo)

Operation for Medical Greed?

Of all the greed-driven jobs in this greed-driven land, I believe the job of the "medical professional" takes the cake.

Traditionally, American used car sharks were the prize winners--but for the last dozen years or so, doctors and their minions have surged ahead.

This morning President-elect Obama sort of made it an official pronouncement when he said that the economic recovery of the country could only be solved by sorting out the "crisis in health care" first. (Whatever that means.)

First of all--it is NOT "health care" that IS the problem. It is sickness care.

Doctors, in their present form, have almost nothing to do with health.

They have everything to do with money.

Sickness workers expect us (the common herd) to bow, kiss their feet, respect their extravagant needs and, most of all, to PAY for their exalted life-style.

In every town and village in this land, the house on the hill is the domicile of The Doctor. The local country club and the golf course simply could not survive without the patronage of The Doctor.

And for sure, YOU cannot PAY your medical bills without buying INSURANCE!

INSURANCE which INSURES that the DOCTORS will continue to live as they should--at the tippity-top of society.

And if the citizen tax-payers of this land are only taught to pay for their medical insurance with their TAXES--the doctors will have everything their education, dignity and greed requires: the power, prestige and money of the US government to support their cosy "health care" racket.

Tomasito, 2008


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Gasoline Prices Again

...Cars/Gas/Cars/Gas/Cars/Gas/Cars/Gas/Cars/Gas...


Gasoline Prices--The Great "WHY?"

I am still wondering WHY the gasoline prices, which were climbing ever higher a month ago and which over the summer months had reached over four dollars a gallon around here (Redding, California) have SUDDENLY crashed!

No one I have read about or talked to has any reasonable idea about WHY this bizarre turnaround happened.

Now that the prices are lower again--no one seems to want to remember or even CARE about the prices of last summer!

Too many of the businesses in this area raised their own prices--not by pennies, but by 25 or 30 per cent--with the excuse that the "energy prices" which they had to pay--forced them to raise their own prices to stay in business. Well, the gasoline prices are lower again--but none of the businesses that raised THEIR prices (in self defense) have lowered them--instead they are just counting their nice profit!

This kind of greed is probably going to cause us more and more trouble until we learn not to be so much so.

Tomasito, 2008


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Letter from Ireland

Castlebaldwin donkey, Ireland

I recently received the following letter from an old friend in Ireland.

It brought home to me--more strongly than ever the global scope of the economic disaster:

Hi Tom,

Ireland is no longer the Ireland you knew.

Massive building of both houses and industrial/retail estates everywhere but particularly in the West. Now many are abandoned--no money left to finish and many of those finished are unoccupied.

The housing boom was very damaging all round as of course many others rode on the back of the wave, naively believing it would continue forever.

The Irish government along with many individuals have been extravagant, irresponsible and even downright crooked, frittering money before putting in a good infrastructure.

Yes, many roads have been improved and not all changes
are bad, but it was as if there was no understanding that one day the
bubble would burst and everything would come crashing down around us.

In the EU Spain and Ireland are suffering the worst now, simply
because they had the biggest building booms over the last ten years.
Ireland also got used to massive hand-outs from the EU and now it's
our turn to hand out to lesser well off States in the new EU, there's
a lot of groaning and begrudging.

Our unemployment rate is rising rapidly too - and don't forget the
weather is AWFUL! Seems to me Saudi and China are currently on top
and I would watch out for Brazil - a huge country loaded with natural
resources that the rest of world may just be wanting in the not too
distant future (just my assessment!).

It is definitely a time for re-organizing and re-thinking the greed and thoughtless pursuit of the false security of wealth--at the cost of all other human needs.

Tomasito, 2008

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Twitter

I finally understood what twitter is all about. It's basically cross between a chatroom and forum: you tell the world what you are doing and they comment on it. You can have discussions with your friends too and you can update your Twitter as often as you want. Good idea but unfortunately not of much use to me at my present stage. I am not very good at socializing.

Looks like the latest rage now. Though you can always use Skype or even a Yahoo messenger. I guess we are going to see the new stuff coming up all the time even if it's a basic equivalent of the old things.

Anyway. Do not follow me on Twitter.

Human Resources

"David" by Michaelangelo

Human Resources

When I returned to the USA from a long stay in Russia and Europe I went looking for work.

I had chosen San Diego as a residence because I had good memories of the city from my childhood.

When I was a boy my family from Albuquerque would visit my Uncle Cal's family in San Diego and I remembered the fun of exploring the tidal flats and wetlands and playing in the sand at La Jolla Beach.

I had not visited San Diego much since—and was I ever surprised when I got there!

The mud flats were gone—dredged and built up into high-class neighborhoods and one big park!

La Jolla Beach was a crowded zoo of hotels, fast food cafes, tee-shirt and “beach wear” shops and people.

LOTS of people.

I had been a teacher long before in Northern California and I had been teaching at a university in Vladivostok so I thought it would be a simple matter to find work teaching.

I took a bus to San Diego State University and went looking for the “Employment Office”.

Someone directed me to the “Human Resources” office.

I had been working in other things than teaching for years in America—little things like fixing leaky roofs and minding horses—and I had never heard the term human resources before.

I thought it was some kind of a joke—so I introduced myself to the secretary in the office as a “human resource”.

No laugh. No smile. No reaction at all.

I was a human resource to her!

I had always thought that humans were some kind of special thinking creature—something with spiritual and social value—but here I was in the very heart of higher learning—The University of California—discovering that human beings like myself—maybe especially like myself—a nobody off the street—were considered “human resources”.

I had always thought “resources” were the materials you used in a factory like coal in a steel mill or trees in a paper mill—but never human beings!

Human beings—even the dumbest of dumbquots—were human beings after all! A little less than angels perhaps but certainly more than sand for cement!

I was disgusted then and I am disgusted now—especially now since there are no jobs for anyone—skilled or unskilled.

I may be unemployed, and just another grain of sand on the beach--but I am not just a “human resource”!

I am a human being.

Tomasito, 2008

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Connections

Spring Madrone: Tomasito photo

Connections

I depend on you; you depend on me,

They depend on us, for their reality.

We depend on them, as land depends on sea,

As light depends on dark, as stone depends on tree.

All together, we, in clear dependency;

I depend on you—you depend on me.

Tomasito, 2008

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